Sacramento schools raise offer to teachers as strike hits 7 days and parents camp at district HQ

Three moms of students enrolled in Sacramento public schools spent all of Wednesday night at the Sacramento City Unified School District headquarters in an effort to pressure school board into meeting with striking union members and reach an agreement.

The ongoing teacher and classified employee strike has shut down schools for the last seven school days. Schools will continue to be closed until the district reaches a deal with the Sacramento City Teachers Association and the classified employee union SEIU Local 1021.

Amber Verdugo, parent of fifth and sixth graders at A.M. Winn Elementary School, said she has been at the district’s Serna Center headquarters since 5 p.m. Wednesday. Along with other union members and parents, she chanted outside of Superintendent Jorge Aguilar’s office to demand a meeting.

“If we can show up and we’re not getting paid and we’re just concerned parents who want our students to be in school, then (Aguilar) can be in that room and make that contract happen,” Verdugo told the Bee.

Aguilar late Wednesday visited union bargaining teams at the district headquarters. He did not commit to a deal or personally join bargaining, frustrating some attendees.

“No direct answers. No commitments to the requests for ongoing participation,” Sacramento City Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela wrote on Facebook. “This was the ;thoughts and prayers’ response to a district in crisis.”

The district late Wednesday announced that it had raised its offer to the teachers union. It’s now proposing a 3% wage increase and a combination of one-time bonuses that could amount to as much as 6% of a teacher’s wages.

The district and teachers union remain far apart on health care costs. The district wants to cap its spending on a costly HealthNet plan and shift more workers to a less expensive employer-covered Kaiser plan.

Aguilar in a video message released Wednesday night called the health care benefits unsustainable, contending they crowd out funding that could be spent on programs for kids. The district spends about $35,000 a year per employee on the HealthNet plan. It’s one of the most expensive public school health care plans in California according to a 2019 state audit.

Both unions call the district’s offer insufficient. They want a higher wage increase and no cuts to the district’s health care offerings.

Verdugo said she plans to camp out at Serna Center with the other two parents until a contract is made. The parent group is currently “taking more bodies” and has reached out to other community members to join their sit-in efforts at the Center.

“We want a contract and fully staffed schools. We want services for our kids. We want every kid to have a permanent teacher,” Verdugo said. “We currently have hundreds of students that have gone all year with no teacher. We have hundreds of vacancies.”

“Aguilar said he wants this to be a destination school district. You don’t get that by underpaying your staff and treating them with disrespect.”

This story was originally published March 31, 2022 at 10:54 AM.